Tip Tuesday: Using the Outdoors as a Refrigerator/Freezer

For the New Year’s Eve Fiesta, we rapidly ran out of fridge real estate (and even fake estate).

Luckily, I came up with a workable solution regarding the punch ingredients (three bottles of ginger ale and three bottles of raspberry-cranberry juice). I had monitored the outside temperatures leaning up to New Year’s Eve in the hope that I could use the great outdoors (or at least our back porch) as a chilling spot for the bottles.

Success! The temperatures were just cold enough to chill the bottles without being too cold (i.e. freezing) to cause the bottles to burst. In the face of such overwhelming success, I will surely have to use the outdoors as my refrigerator again!

I would like to note some cautions. First, I would not put anything outside to chill without a tight fitting lid. I’m not talking covered in foil or plastic wrap; I’m talking original factory seal. This would not be a place for leftovers unless you are looking to invite a zoo into your backyard. Second, I would not use this if you have plenty of room in your fridge. People might look at you funny and ask where your tin foil hat is. One of my neighbors who attended the party looked a trifle worried when I started pulling the bottles from the bags on the porch until I explained the aforementioned lack of fridge real estate.

Finally, if you find yourself using this method on a daily basis, remember that spring (and summer) are coming…eventually…you won’t have that “extra fridge space” forever. (In other words, if you find it being used as a more permanent fix, you need to find a more more permanent fix, if you get my meaning.)

Have you ever found yourself using the outdoors as a temporary fridge/freezer?